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Here’s How to Tweet a Link with a Preview Image on Twitter

Have you seen Tweets where the image has a description on the bottom and clicking the image actually takes you to a website? Ever wonder how to tweet a link with a preview image on Twitter?

They’re the ones that look like this:

Ever sat there scratching your head wondering how you can create one of these Tweets yourself?

Trust me, you’re not alone.

People ask me how to do it all the time. So today I am laying out 2 ways in an easy to follow step-by-step process teaching you how to tweet a link with a preview image on Twitter.

Tweet a Link with a Preview Image on Twitter Using a Social Sharing WordPress Plugin

Some WordPress social sharing plugins, like Social Warfare, will automatically create a tweet with a clickable image.

For instance, when you tweet using a sharing button from the plugin, you’ll get a Twitter card with a clickable image, a headline of the article, a brief description, and the website URL, like so:

These elements get set by fields in the WordPress plugin at the bottom of the page where you edit blog posts.

If your blog is set up on WordPress, this is a super easy way to create Tweets with a clickable image.

But what if your blog isn’t built on WordPress? Or even if it is, what if you want to create other Tweets with a clickable image? Then you can use a Twitter website card to make a custom Tweet with a clickable image.

Tweet a Link with a Preview Image on Twitter Using a Twitter Website Card

You can create a Twitter website card in the Twitter ad platform. It is necessary to enter a payment method to access the ad platform, but you don’t ever actually have to pay for an ad. You can create and tweet website cards without promoting them.

To access the ad platform, click on the small profile pic icon in the top right of Twitter and choose the Twitter Ads option:

If you don’t have a Twitter Ads account yet, you’ll land on a page where you can choose the Promote Mode or Twitter Ads option and you want to choose Twitter Ads then set your country and time zone.

That will direct you to a page with campaign objectives. You don’t need to choose one of those. Instead, go to the top right of the screen to access the drop down menu by clicking your name. Then choose the “Add new payment method” option.

Add a credit card (again, you don’t have to pay for anything, but it has to be there) and then you can access the Creatives section to start making your Twitter website cards.

Creating Website Cards for Twitter

Start by clicking the “Creatives” tab in the menu bar and then the “Cards” link in the drop down menu:

Next, click the “Create new card” button in the top right of the screen and choose “Website card” from the drop down menu:

Next, set an image for the Tweet (use a 1:19 : 1 ratio so it won’t be cropped), write your headline, set the URL you want the click to go to and title the image.

This is what the completed form looks like:

Click the create button and you’re done making the Twitter card. Now, we’ll need to create the Tweet copy and send it out.

Creating Tweets from a Website Card

At this point, the Twitter card is created and you can use it as many times as you like to post new tweets with the card. As soon as you click the “Create” button, you’ll be taken to the cards library where you’ll create the Tweet.

Start by hovering over the card you just created and click the Tweet icon.

This will bring up a box for you to compose your Tweet. Now, just enter your copy and you can Tweet it right away or schedule it for later.

Notice that even though the image is clickable, I still included a shortened link to the post in the copy of the Tweet. A lot of Twitter users are accustomed to finding links in the Tweet copy. I advise sticking with this format to get the most opportunities to drive traffic from your Tweet.

Here’s the finished product of my example above:

Creating New Tweets from a Website Card

Again, now that the card exists, you can always go back and create more Tweets with different copy.

To create new Tweets later, again access Twitter Ads and then click on the “Creatives” tab and the “Cards” link in the drop down menu:

Wrapping Up

So, if you were wondering how to tweet a link with a preview image on Twitter, now you know. It may seem like a lot of steps but this can be done quickly. And, again, once you’ve set up a card, creating new Tweets with different copy is super easy.

David Boutin

David Boutin is an expert on Twitter. David is the content manager and wearer of many digital marketing hats at Social Quant in Tampa, Florida. When not staring at a computer screen, you can find David at the local parks playing basketball or staring at a TV screen watching Georgia Bulldogs football.

About David Boutin

David Boutin is an expert on Twitter. David is the content manager and wearer of many digital marketing hats at Social Quant in Tampa, Florida. When not staring at a computer screen, you can find David at the local parks playing basketball or staring at a TV screen watching Georgia Bulldogs football.

Thanks for the tips, looks really professional.
Just a comment : when I am in the composer of the creative card, I don’t have neither the hashtag automatic recognition nor the emoji. The composer is therefore very basic.

I need to open in a new tab, the usual composer and paste the text in the creative card composer.

Thanks v much – v helpful. If I want to add a card to the second tweet in a thread is that possible? I don’t think so as there’s no option to add a card when you click the + (plus) button to add a tweet to a thread.

This was really helpful – I went all the way through and created my card and then tweeted with it, but then it seemed to disappear. I doesn’t show up on my wall and I have no idea where it is. Can you help with that?

After creating the card and progressing to the last step “Creating Tweets from a Website Card” when I hover over the Card there is no “Tweet” option. All of the other icons are showing except the option to make a Tweet. Any ideas?

I am very excited to be able to do this. However, I created my first Card, but after I “tweeted” it, it shows as published in my card library; but it didn’t post to my site. It is listed as “unpromoted” “can’t be seen by followers” … so at this point, I need to pay money I guess?? Did this happen to anyone else? Is there a go-around??

It doesn’t sound like you’re doing anything wrong but without looking over your shoulder, it’s hard to say. The only thing I can think of is to make sure the box that says Promoted Only is NOT checked and see if they tweet shows up in your feed then :)

Hi Dave, there used to be a hack where you could include the URL of the card and schedule it but it seems Twitter has changed the way they do the cards and I can’t get that to work anymore unfortunately. If anyone out there does have a solutions, I’d love to hear it and will update the post to include that.

Very useful article. Having to find out how to do this all by ourselves would have taken a lot of time. Also, you explained the whole thing very clearly with pictures. Now there is no need to wonder, we can simply do it when needed.

It is an amazing feature that we can reuse the card and also schedule our tweets with it.

It seems to me like Twitter has updated since this article was written. I clicked “Twitter Ads” under my profile button, and am directed to either “Promote Mode” or “Twitter Ads.” Both need committed $ for campaigns, I think.

Buffer is a social media scheduling tool and they have an extension for browsers that makes it easier to use. For instance you can right click on a blog post and have an option to share it from Buffer right from the page. I use their service every day and love it :)

These instructions must be incredibly out of date — NOTHING you show appears in my Twitter account — I made a PDF copy of the page so I could follow along step by step. OTHER than the initial click on account image NOTHING past that first step matched your instructions.

I am NOT complaining; only suggesting you MIGHT enhance your credibility by keeping your on line data and instructions up to date or at least notify readers they are legacy and NOT current data.

Hi Carl, thanks for your comment. I am the administrator of this site and would love to help you through the problems you are having. I just looked at my own account and was able to get through step 1. Can you please be a little more specific as to what you tried to click and did not see? This post was originally published in March of 2017, so while social media does move fast, I am hoping it is still relatively up-to-date. I look forward to your response.

Hi Matt, I was able to create a card following your instructions, but I can’t find the opportunity to compose a Tweet using the card. I’ve added a payment method…Still don’t see how to use the card in a Tweet. Can you help?

Great guide. A little outdated with finding the “creatives” tab but the comments were very helpful. I just want to know what would happen if the “promoted-only” tab remained check after sending out the tweet. Would you then have to pay for everyone that comes across and clicks the tweet?

Robin, I was having the same problem…when you click into Twitter Ads, click on the little downward-facing arrow next to your name or your business name. That should bring up a menu with an option to “Add a Payment Method”. Once I did that, the “Creatives” menu popped up in the header of the Twitter Ads website, and from there I was able to follow these instructions. Hope that helps!

Hi David, Thank you very much for your feedback. I’ll look into the Social Warefare plugin right away to see if that helps resolve the issue, since I am currently dealing with this same issue right now. :)

I am having some issues with having my Twitter cards point to a specific blog post and then have the url under the title in the card be the main website for the company I work for. Have you ever had an issues like this?

Hi Anthony, I’m not 100% sure but it sounds like something to do with the way your website is set up. I have seen instances when Twitter isn’t sure what to do with a link and just reverts the card to our homepage and the first image it can identify. I would talk to your website developer and see how the site is set up to handle Twitter cards.

If you’re using WordPress, the Social Warfare plug in is great for controlling the way cards appear on posts and pages :)

You should be able to create the card without running an ad and tweet that out. Just make sure not to start a campaign or set a budget or anything like that and you won’t be charged to tweet the way it’s outlined in the post :)

Is this outdated? I never got past the step to select the “Card” from the “Creatives” drop down menu–no such menu on any screen. My twitter screens displayed completely different views than shown above. Shoot!

No, not outdated. I just checked and it does look slightly different but the instructions are still the same and everything is basically still in the same place. I do think you have to enter your credit card info (but don’t have to actually pay anything) to create the cards. Maybe that’s why you don’t have the option? Really not sure :(

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Neal Schaffer is a leader in helping educate executives and professionals on social media as well as in implementing successful social media strategies for businesses. CEO of the social media agency PDCA Social, social media educator at Rutgers University and the Irish Management Institute, social media keynote speaker who has spoken at hundreds of events on four continents, and author of three social media books, Neal is a true innovator and influencer in the growing world of social media for business.